While genetic improvement of susceptible crop species may
enhance resistance to microbial pathogens and facilitate reduced
pesticide load, the possibility for transmission of novel genes to
wild relatives has hampered acceptance of GM crops in some
markets. Chloroplast transformation presents an attractive
alternative to nuclear transformation and offers the potential to
ameliorate these environmental concerns. Most agronomically
important species exhibit maternal inheritance of organellar
genomes which eliminates the threat of transgene escape through
pollen. Gene silencing is absent due to site directed, single copy
insertion by homologous recombination. Foreign proteins can
accumulate to high levels (up to 50% of total soluble protein) and
are retained within the chloroplast envelope protecting them from
degradation by host cytoplasmic proteases. A bacterial
chloroperoxidase gene (cpo-p) was transformed into the tobacco
chloroplast genome to test its efficacy against plant pathogens and
the mycotoxin producing saprophyte Aspergillus flavus.

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